A microtonal exploration that links music and color
to the golden ratio (Phi)

The acquistion of knowledge proceeds from the initial perception
of information to its' classification and endowment
with meaning.
The ability of the visual system to take in vast amounts of
information simultaneously make it well suited to the first stage of
this process, whereas, the auditory system and its
direct link to spoken language make it naturally suited to
the second.

The assignment of patterns of speech to
objects in the visual field has been fundamental to
the development of language as has the ability to then visualize those names
using a system of writing.
The advent of computers and their ability to
visualize information has profoundly
reinforced the cyclical nature of this process.
The interaction of the visual and aural senses
continues to play a crucial role in the mechanism by which
language evolves and by which knowledge is acquired and
the dialectic
they loosely embody suggests a
structure for a
language of music and color that
may provide a context conducive
its evolution.

That 'there is something to know' and that
'it is of an unchanging nature', when taken together, lead
to a contradiction that man has been grappling with since
Parmenides first voiced his opposition to the void.
The dilema has been and continues to be
reconciling the whole with its parts.
Over the centuries the context of this discussion has
clothed the matter in pairs of words.
If the subject under discussion is logic
we are confronted with the problem
of reconciling deductive and inductive modes of reasoning.
If it concerns the nature of the physical world
it turns to holism versus atomism and the
epistemologically charged duo of
objective and subjective reality.
At the heart of politics beat the laws that reconcile
equality with freedom.

It is in the spirit of this dialectic that the
Golden Section (Φ) presents itself as a
possible candidate upon which to base a language
of music and color.
The whole and its parts seems mirrored by our senses.
Music theory suggests that the aesthetics of the aural sense is integer
based and sensitive to the parts.
The visual sense, while it doesnt
have as clear a mathematical basis, seems more wholistically inclined.
If the integers represent the parts then Φ seems an intuitive
choice for relating them to the whole. But assigning the senses to opposing poles
of a dialectic is meaningless without a bridge and
a way is needed to generate the integers
from Φ that is analogous to the fibonacci series
where Φ is generated from the integers.
The ratios of just intonation must be included
if the language is to serve
as the common ground where the senses can interact.
As it turns out, the integers can be
generated and this may
be enough to warrant experimentation; but it is also worth noting that
there also seem to be some indications that both
music
and color may have
independent and pre-existing relations to
Φ.

A pitfall in any attempt to formally link music and color
is that the result will end up simply being colorful.
This may, in fact, be the case with some of the compositions
posted here.
To tell the truth I find it difficult to judge since it is unclear
to what degree success should be expected.
So far I have experimented with only a few preliminary mappings
and have instead devoted most of my time to developing the software.
However, the audio portions may be of some
interest on their own so I felt it was
worthwhile posting them despite the inconclusive nature
of the few mappings to color so far explored. The approach when it
came to form was guided by the notion that it was best served if
kept open to interpretation. To this end, a simple canvas was developed
to randomize the placement of 3D models and save the results
as branchgraphs which can be later
associated with notes in the composition.
The pieces produced so far are part of an ongoing experiment but
should also be viewed as stand alone works of art.